re: New Case for PC Gaming Build.

slim, that's not a terrible price man. My current system is very similar. When I was initially picking parts I focused on picking really nice but reasonable parts. I ended up spending 1800 shipped. I fricked up the motherboardand ended up buying the motherboard you have listed and i really like it. I also got double the ssd space.

My advice would be to really comb newegg an pcpartpicker for less expensive parts, particularly the psu, ram, and case. you can get some really good stuff on deep discount if you keep an eye out. ram is ram and if you can find some reputable stuff at cut price you'll save a good 20 bucks there from neweggs normal prices. also, the case market is pretty vast and you can find cases that offer similar features and widely varied price points. Love my fractal. I have a gigabyte 670 and I like it but you can save even more cash with a 660ti or second hand gpu. For instance, coyote sold 2 overclocked 680s with 2 gb more memory for the same price as the new 670 I ended up with. Don't be afraid of second hand gpus. Power supplies are also a very wide market. For example, I initially picked a corsair 750w non modualr psu for like 100 bucks thinking it was fine. I ended up finding a modular 850w thermaltake on clearance at bestbuy for 90. I also recently bought a very nice 80 plus platinum 450w for like 60 bucks for a different build! Patience pays dividends as long as you are willing to forego the immediate gratification premium. That 212 evo is rated as one of the best value cooling options out there and I agree with it especially if you don't care about a lot of overclocking.

I just tried to make him the best build in his budget. Is it overkill for gaming? Yea it is but it will greatly out perform all of our systems if he grabs a second 7970 to crossfire. Those lga2011 boards are nasty

quote:I just tried to make him the best build in his budget. Is it overkill for gaming? Yea it is but it will greatly out perform all of our systems if he grabs a second 7970 to crossfire. Those lga2011 boards are nasty

Not in benchmarks really. 1155 sockets can clock higher than 2011 sockets.

Only reason to get a 2011 socket is for Quad-CFx/SLi or if you need extra cores for PS, LR and some video editing

quote:From what I've read, the 3820 overclocks really well and will outperform the 3770k.

Well, yes and no. It OCs great but hard to get them to 4.8GHz +

Really a waste because it won't be pushing more FPS unless he gets a QUAD setup.

3770K and 3820 w/ 2x 7970 CFx will bench about the same. Those extra cores aren't used in game rendering and by benchmark programs. Only thing that will help it is the extra cache.

ETA:

It really is just the chipset for that socket that allows more bandwidth and PCI-E lanes. You can do 4 lanes @ x16 with a x79 chipset. Z77 chip sets don't allow 4 lanes @ x16. They really are almost the same chip except with extra cores. It really just comes down to bandwidth when you SLi/CFx a Tri/Quad setup.

Notice the CPUs used and how 2600K/3770K and 3930K/3820s all bench around each other. The only reason the guys with SB-E are on top is because, they put more money into the rig for QUAD set ups and they purchase 1 chip for benchmarks.

570s - $175ish each or $300 for both 550ti - 90ish or throw it in with the other 2 cards for $375 2500k - About $150 Mobo - $50-100 depending on how desperate someone is or sell the cpu and mobo together for $200-225 HDD RAM - $25ish HDDs - $80ish SSD - I'll probably keep (Raid my 2 ssds together) PSU - $40-60ish Sound Card - Probably keep that too (just for shits and giggles)

That puts me anywhere from $600-800ish depending on how everything sells. I'll probably keep the keyboard and mouse at my house in BR so I don't have to move my stuff from hammond every weekend. I'll sell off my 3 monitors and grab 2-3 catleaps (2 for my apartment and one for my house in BR).